Best ways to survive the Cerim Crucible in No Rest for the Wicked

The Cerim Crucible is endgame content for No Rest for the Wicked and offers a roguelike experience. There are 10 floors to progress through, each becoming more difficult than the last.

If you’re going to beat the Cerim Crucible, you’ll need to make sure you’re prepared. Here are the best ways to survive the Cerim Crucible in No Rest for the Wicked.

How to beat the Cerim Crucible in No Rest for the Wicked

Before you can enter the Cerim Crucible, it’s smart to learn of the best places to farm Fallen Embers. This rare material is the only way to gain access to the Cerim Crucible, where it requires one Fallen Ember per run.

Be prepared for the fight of your life as the Cerim Crucible is more challenging than anything you have experienced so far in No Rest for the Wicked. Here are the best ways to prepare and increase your chances of survival.

Reach Max Level

One of the best ways to survive The Cerim Crucible in No Rest for the Wicked is to reach max level of early access. The max level is 30 and you can easily reach this number by attempting the Cerim Crucible, dying, and repeating. In other words, you shouldn’t stress too much about completing the Crucible immediately and instead should be focusing on gaining a ton of experience points on your runs.

The Cerim Crucible gives you so many experience points that you can reach level 30 in no time. The more you level up, the easier the Cerim Crucible will become and you’ll find yourself surviving longer on your runs.

Load up on weapon oils

The absolute best way to increase your damage output is by applying Oils to your weapon. Lucky for you, there is a merchant (Markos) who specifically sells these oils. If you haven’t unlocked the Alchemist merchant, check out our guide on how to complete the Potions Seller quest.

I recommend loading up on as many as you can afford before heading into the Cerim Crucible. My personal favorites are the Flamescale Oil and Plaguescale Oil. The former can set your enemies on fire, while plaguescale can poison them — both adding passive damage to your attacks. You’ll discover that anytime you apply an oil to your weapon, enemies die much quicker and you’ll make it much further in the Cerim Crucible.

Farm rare weapons and armor from the Crucible

Yes, to survive the Cerim Crucible you should focus on farming weapons and armor from it. The greatest feature of the Cerim Crucible is that it has the rarest armor and legendary weapons that are much stronger than anything you’d find in the base game. This makes each run well worth the effort, as you feel like your character’s build is improving with each attempt.

Upgrade armor and weapons

This is pretty much a given, but it needs to be addressed. It is crucial that you upgrade your armor and weapons as much as possible to increase your chances of surviving the Cerim Crucible. The good news is that loot and resources respawn constantly in No Rest for the Wicked, allowing you to farm for the necessary upgrade materials.

Stock up on high quality food

To have any chance at surviving the Cerim Crucible, you must come stocked with food. Not just food in general, make sure you enter the Cerim Crucible with the best cooking recipes available in the game. The more food you have on hand, the higher your chances of survival as they replenish your health, stamina, and focus bar for more damage.

Gordon is your go-to guy for food in No Rest for the Wicked. He sells endless ingredients, and top-notch food recipes, and offers fair prices to make things simple. Remember, you can upgrade Gordon’s food pantry by speaking to Danos and investing in the proper materials. Doing so will unlock more food, recipes, and ingredients for purchase. 

Enchant gear and infuse gems

Another way to increase your chances of surviving the Cerim Crucible is by enchanting your weapons as well as infusing gems into them. The former will upgrade your weapon to a higher tier, adding passive buffs such as increased speed, higher health, etc. Meanwhile, adding gems to your weapons and armor can add even more additional buffs such as applying more heat and plague damage, improving the potency of recipes, and so on.

It’s important to note that when you enchant a weapon, you will lose the last two gem sockets on your weapon. Additionally, there is a good chance that there will be a negative effect applied to your weapon such as gold loss on death, for example. In other words, it’s a risky feature and comes down to luck. Still, I have noticed the positives of enchanting weapons far outweigh the negative effects you may receive.

Stock up on throwables

Similar to oils, it’s very smart to bring as many throwables as you can into the Cerim Crucible. Throwables consist of bombs and flasks, which deal incredibly high damage to enemies and sometimes even apply an elemental effect to them. 

Having throwables in your inventory can be a deciding factor in whether you survive the Cerim Crucible or not. It allows you to keep your distance from the enemy and deal damage from afar. You can purchase Scrap Bombs from Markos or simply find throwables by exploring the world.

Take your time

Lastly, and arguably the most important, the best way to survive the Cerim Crucible is to take your time. No Rest for the Wicked is a souls-like after all, meaning you need to take your time and read the enemy’s movements and attack patterns. Instead of going in and attacking with zero thought, take a step back and read the room.

Each room is randomly generated. As soon as you enter a room, make a game plan on how you’re going to tackle the enemies, who you’re going to fight first, etc. Also make sure you have the right food, throwable, and oil equipped for that particular room and assume that you will be using it.

When I first started the Cerim Crucible, I consistently got destroyed. It wasn’t until I slowed down and took my time that I found myself getting much further and eventually beating it altogether. Patience is a virtue in No Rest for the Wicked.

Hopefully, the tips in this guide have helped you survive the brutal difficulty of the Cerim Crucible. Make sure to check out our guide on all Runes and what they do, so you can further optimize your build.